Wasting Garbage

If people put wasted food into a compost pile, they wouldn’t have so much trouble with bears and raccoons overturning their trash cans. You don’t need a bin to compost; just place scraps into a pile in an out-of-the-way spot away from the house where bears, raccoons, opossums, and other critters can recycle the material by consuming it. Anything they don’t eat will be broken down by microorganisms into rich soil for your garden.

ALL TEXT AND PHOTOS © Marlene A. Condon

 

You may have heard that humans are made of “stardust”. Although you could imagine this ethereal statement springing from some poet’s imagination, it’s quite true. Your body regenerates most of its cells every seven to 15 years, but the elements that comprise those cells have been in existence for millions of millennia.

The hydrogen atoms in your body were produced at the beginning of time when the universe originated with the Big Bang. Carbon, nitrogen and oxygen atoms were created in burning stars, and the heavy metals or elements essential for human health in trace amounts (such as iron, copper, and zinc) are the result of stars that exploded (supernovae) long ago.

 

In other words, humans and all life forms are dependent upon the recycling of matter, especially that which is organic—carbon-based matter that comes from the remains of other life forms, such as plants and animals and their waste products. Because existing matter must be reused in the creation of new lives, it should never be sent to a landfill where it’s essentially locked away and unavailable.

 

Most landfills contain little dirt, very little oxygen, and therefore few if any microorganisms, which means any biodegradation of the discarded, tightly compacted material takes place extremely slowly. A landfill study conducted by University of Arizona researchers uncovered still-recognizable 25-year-old hot dogs, corn cobs, and grapes, as well as 50-year-old newspapers that could still be read.

 

(Talk, Earth. "Do Biodegradable Items Degrade in Landfills?" ThoughtCo, Oct. 29, 2020, thoughtco.com/do-biodegradable-items-really-break-down-1204144.)

 

Yard trimmings that can naturally decompose on their own comprise 6.2% of waste put into landfills. Food, another naturally degradable substance, accounts for another 21.9%. Thus, about a third of landfill deposits consist of organic material that’s trucked from suburban homes, restaurants and other businesses, hospitals, and every sector of society to be buried along with the rest of people’s discarded paraphernalia.

 

Instead, it should be composted, whether at homes with yards, at the landfill, or at special composting facilities. The material of life is not the “garbage” many people consider it to be, a word suggesting organic matter is worthless or useless.

 

Yet it may be difficult to alter people’s feelings about keeping organic material around to decompose on their property. Consider the following exchange from a social media site.

 

A woman posted a photo of a large pile of yard trimmings in her driveway and wanted to let folks know she was looking for someone to take it away. In the background of the photo, you could see a fancy garden of well manicured shrubs and trees with nice wooden fencing delineating the different parts of the landscape.

 

Knowledgeable gardeners would never part with such yard “debris”; they would realize it should be composted to be used to enrich the soil for those garden plants. Indeed, someone immediately suggested just that, while another person wrote in support of that notion and to add that it would be broken down and gone by spring.

 

At this point, yet another lady chimed in to ask which spring (2022? or 2023?) and to make clear it was already summer—the obvious intent of her comment being that she wouldn’t want those yard clippings sitting around in her yard for at least a year or more! For her and the lady who posted the original query, this material simply had no place in their well kept yards. They saw the unwanted organic matter as garbage that would rot and destroy the ambience of the beauty they had painstakingly created.

 

Introducing such folks to the realities of life is the only hope we have of possibly getting them to recognize the many reasons it’s vital to recycle organic matter. Even in space, stardust is recycled.

NATURE ADVICE:

 

Woody yard trimmings can be composted via a brush pile. It’s easy to build one. Simply pile logs and larger debris in the desired location, then add smaller branches, twigs, and even leaves on top of the assemblage. As with a compost pile, rich soil will be found at its base within a few years. Place the pile in a far corner away from the house where you or Mother Nature might plant flowering vines to grow over it.

 

NOTE: A brush pile can provide shelter, nesting areas, and “homes” for numerous kinds of wildlife. During summer, ground-nesting mammals and birds might build nests at the bottom. After the logs have begun to rot, salamanders can hide in them during the day, waiting for the cover of darkness to start hunting for food. If the logs are rotted enough, Eastern Five-lined Skinks and other lizards may lay their eggs there.

 

In winter, the brush pile will be used for shelter from harsh weather and for protection from predators. Birds will forage nearby so that they will have a place to hide if a hawk comes hunting. At night, some of these birds may sleep among the interlocking branches. Amphibians (such as treefrogs), reptiles, and many kinds of insects will spend the cold months in a dormant state inside the rotting logs.

 

The brush pile can also provide a learning experience for children (and adults!). Poke carefully at the decaying tissue and you may find millipedes and pillbugs, all of which dine on dead plant material, thus breaking down the brush pile. Bacteria and fungi are also present, drawing life from the lifeless wood and decomposing it in the process. Lichens (complex plants composed of an alga and a fungus in a symbiotic relationship) grow upon the wood surfaces, releasing a weak acid that breaks down plant tissue. Spiders and centipedes prey upon the scavengers (those organisms feeding on the wood), while skunks, birds, and other predators tear apart the logs in order to make a meal of the variety of creatures living there.

 

A brush pile is valuable in so many ways!

 

 

Helping Nature Shouldn’t Be Against the Law

The south side of the author’s nature-friendly yard is filled with plants, providing habitat for a huge variety of wildlife that includes mice and the native Eastern Woodrat. Does a yard like this threaten anyone’s health, safety, or general welfare? Absolutely not.

ALL TEXT AND PHOTOS © Marlene A. Condon

 

Over the years, many folks have asked for my assistance when they’ve tried to do what’s right for the natural world and run head-on into government regulations. Unfortunately, it’s hard to fight City Hall if you don’t have a large group of citizens willing to speak out for the cause of “nature justice”.

 

I’m hoping that at some point, environmentalists will stop waging useless wars (on so-called invasive plants, for example) and start fighting for realistic changes that can truly make a difference for our natural world. In cities and towns, and in many rural subdivisions, regulations are put into place to control the appearance of the developed area and they are highly detrimental to wildlife. Yet very few people fight against this government overreach that is based upon a lack of knowledge.

 

Under the heading, “Tall Grass and Weeds” at the website for Harrisonburg, Virginia, you will read that “Whenever grass, weeds, brush or other foreign growth attains a height of twelve (12) inches or more, it shall be presumed to threaten the health, safety and general welfare of residents of the City.”

 

https://www.harrisonburgva.gov/tall-grass-weeds

 

Under the heading “Unlawful growth of weeds and other vegetation” at the Charlottesville, Virginia, website, you’ll find that “All weeds existing in violation of this section are hereby declared to constitute a public nuisance.”

 

http://vtod.frec.vt.edu/Documents/Charlottesville.pdf

 

Citizens of these two cities can be fined for disobeying these ordinances. But nature has gotten a bad rap. When left to its own devices in developed areas, wildlife habitat is viewed as overgrown, messy, and a place that will assuredly attract undesirable critters that carry disease (i.e., rats and mice), referred to as “vermin”. But does this picture accurately depict natural areas?

 

The answer is a resounding, “NO”. Mice and rats exist because they fulfill crucial roles in the functioning of the environment. Mice are Mother Nature’s gardeners that also practice natural plant control, and rats are part of her cleanup crew.

 

When mice carry seeds back to their nests and drop some along the way, they help plants to spread, which is vital for the perpetuation of wildlife habitat. When they feed upon the seeds they collect, mice limit the numbers of plants in an area, thereby preventing overcrowding of the plants, which ensures their good health.

 

Rats can be called opportunists that will feed upon just about anything edible they can find, such as dead animals, fresh and rotting fruits and vegetables, and seeds. Without them, the environment would not be cleared as quickly of decaying organic matter.

 

Are humans likely to catch diseases from mice and rats in a natural area located near people? It’s highly unlikely unless you handle one of these critters, which everyone should know better than to do. It’s your responsibility to teach your children not to touch dead animals, just as you must teach them not to cross the street without looking both ways first and not to stick their fingers into an electrical outlet.

 

So why is there so much fear about this issue? It’s because people don’t employ rational thought when considering their relationship to the natural world. Instead of behaving responsibly, they instead want to kill wildlife doing its job.

 

If you don’t seal your house to keep wildlife outside, and if your house is dirty with food crumbs on floors and furniture, you are going to attract animals to clean up after you. If you come into contact with saliva, urine, and/or droppings from disease-infected rats and mice, you may well become infected. You also need to avoid getting bitten.

 

The smartest strategy for preventing exposure to rodent diseases is to seal all entries to your home to the best of your ability and to minimize food sources that attract these animals in the first place. If you feed birds, only put out as much seed as will get taken each day (mice and rats are active mainly at night).

 

Nature-friendly landscaping around your house will invite the variety of creatures that keep your environment working properly. Owls, hawks, and foxes—all of which are well habituated to urban/suburban areas—can help to limit rodents, but they require habitat.  Whatever you do, don’t employ poisons of any sort. They are inhumane, causing intense suffering, and they kill any critter that feeds upon a dying poisoned animal.

 

It’s the height of silliness for local ordinances to limit the height of plants in a yard, and to speak of tall plants as threatening to the health and safety of citizens. If you reside in an area governed by outmoded thinking about our wild plants and animals, please speak against it.

 

NATURE ADVICE: 

It’s important for people who care about the environment to try to join with others of like mind to change laws that negatively affect it. One way to accomplish this goal would be to send a press release to the local newspaper to let folks know of your plans. Libraries and other public spaces often allow use of their meeting rooms at no cost for noncommercial purposes. Weed ordinances perpetuate prejudiced ideas that are invalid. Let’s get some justice for nature!

 

Profusive Photinias

From the fall of 2017 to the spring of 2018, a male Red-naped Sapsucker from the western part of the United States made almost daily visits to the author’s Photinias, allowing her to get good looks and photos (which were sent to experts) of this extremely uncommon visitor to the eastern part of the country.

ALL TEXT AND PHOTOS © Marlene A. Condon

I originally wanted to grow the shrub commonly called “Red-tips” or Photinia because the new growth can be quite red—my absolute favorite color. I hadn’t really considered it in terms of wildlife, but not long after planting six bushes along the west side of my deck, I discovered this plant to be superbly suited to many kinds of critters!

 

The plants grew quickly, shooting up so fast that when my stepmother visited my new home, she said I must have “quite a green thumb”. She couldn’t believe that such big plants had been planted such a short time before her visit.

 

The tall, evergreen shrubs were an immediate hit with birds as cold winter weather settled in. I soon discovered that White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos from the northern states and Canada were sleeping among the glossy leaves that helped to shelter them from icy winds and snow.

 

Throughout each day I would see Tufted Titmice, Golden- and Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and Carolina Chickadees searching over the leaves for leftover aphids (a “pest”  according to gardening websites, but in reality, nutritious food for many organisms). Numerous species of songbirds and Gray Squirrels checked out the safety of the deck from those same branches before visiting for seed and water. And much to my delight, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers have continued to visit every winter to suck sap from my big (about 25 feet tall, now) Photinias.

 

Making neat rows of sap “wells” on the trunks, these northern birds spend hours where I can easily watch them and the variety of other creatures that also desire a sugary treat. Squirrels, insects flying on warmer days, and songbirds (such as cardinals, kinglets, juncos, titmice, and chickadees) all sneak in for a sip when the sapsucker is not looking. These activities continue to this day, 36 years later.

 

The big shrubs also provide protective cover for birds as they flee predators. More than once I have watched with surprise as a Sharp-shinned or Cooper’s Hawk (two kinds of raptors that feed mainly upon songbirds) tried to maneuver through the thickly branched bushes to catch a bird. The hawks have never been successful, but they have provided me with the opportunity to see them well, something that is not often easy to do! I have even seen an Eastern Screech Owl in the Photinia during years when a pair is nesting in one of my wildlife boxes.

 

During the warm months of the year, cardinals have nested in the Photinias, and many hard-to-see avian summer inhabitants have stopped in for a quick visit. Yellow-billed cuckoos, birds that are rather secretive in habit and are more often heard than seen, will sometimes fly into the Photinias where I get to view them for a few moments. I have gotten a great look at a Louisiana Waterthrush and a Wood Thrush when these summer neighbors flew into the bushes and looked around a bit.

 

In late summer and fall as birds are beginning to migrate farther south, I often catch sight of warblers in the Photinias. Many of these birds are wonderfully colored and a beautiful sight to behold, and thus always cause for great excitement.

 

I had read that the flat heads of small white blossoms on these spring-blooming plants developed into bright red berries (yes, yet more red!) that were eaten by wildlife. After several fruitless years, I had given up, thinking that perhaps the male and female flowers were on separate plants and that I must have all males. But lo and behold, eight years after I had planted the Photinias, one of my bushes finally held beautifully red berries in November, and all the plants began to flower and fruit every year. Flocks of American Robins and Cedar Waxwings have landed to eat these little red delights (to their stomachs and to my eyes), and Gray Squirrels enjoy the fruits too.

 

Much to my surprise, I have seen squirrels eating the lustrously waxy Photinia leaves during the winter. And in springtime, the Photinia flowers are a magnet for many kinds of bees and other insects, proving that they are loaded with nectar and qualifying the Photinia as a good wildlife plant in yet another way.

 

The Chinese Photinia (there are said to be 40-60 species) that I bought locally is the most common Photinia grown in the southern part of the United States. It can reach a possible height of 36 feet, but you rarely see them allowed to grow to their full height and form. That’s a shame because these trees, though nonnative, truly bring in a profusion of wildlife for your viewing pleasure.

 

 

NATURE ADVICE: 

Horticulturalists advise pruning Photinias, but my advice is to just leave them to their own devices for maximum wildlife benefit. Whether you plant just one or several, place the plant(s) where they can fulfill their destiny by growing tall and wide in a sunny location.